Double-Duty for Hollins Festival

The Hollins-Mill Mountain Festival of New Works continues to surprise, delight, and go beyond the call of duty. Last night's performance of Ben Abbott's "Grave Mistakes" was simply delightful light entertainment. It is a ghost story with a romantic twist that doesn't disappoint.

Like the other plays in the festival, "Grave" is written, produced, performed by people in or affiliated with the Hollins Playwriting graduate program and Abbott was forced to do double duty in last night's performance when lead actor Michael Mansfield took sick. Mansfield also plays the lead in next week's "The Dragon Butcher," so the decision was to save him from wearing out. Abbott got the news that he was taking the stage for his play at 4 p.m. yesterday, 3.5 hours before curtain time. He was simply flawless in the part. You can likely give some of the credit to director Amy Lytle.

He wasn't the only actor who had a busy day. Richie Cannaday, who played Ray, was a part of the Roanoke Regional Writers Conference (across campus) during the day.

The crowd size was impressive for this play, produced while Hollins' students were out of school for their interterm break. 

"Grave Mistakes" plays for its final fling today at 2 p.m. "The Dragon Butcher" finishes the festival next weekend (Jan. 26-29 with Thursday-Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 2) and tickets are $10.

 

Amanda Mansfield plays Elizabeth in "I Live To Tell."

Hollins Festival Off With A Bang

Sarah Cosgrove's "I Live To Tell" is the Hollins-Mill Mountain Theatre Festival of New Works in a nutshell. It is a 30-minute, one-woman play, written by Ms. Cosgrove, a Hollins MFA, and featuring 15 people in various roles from director John Bergman to dramaturg Gwyneth Strope. All of them have a link to the Hollins MFA program.

The Festival of New Works--performed in the summer and winter at Hollins and MMT--is a showcase of the Hollins masters in playwrighting program and has been instrumental over the years in helping develop Roanoke's deep bench of theater arts practitioners.

"I Live To Tell" features Amanda Mansfield in the lead role as a woman who has to undergo a radical mastectomy and it jams a great deal of intense theatrical expertise into its half an hour. Ms. Mansfield is the matriarch of Roanoke's First Family of Theatre (husband Mike Mansfield and daughter Ms. Strope) and is often considered Roanoke's most accomplished actress. She and her daughter are MFA students at Hollins, both on scholarship.

"I Live To Tell" is one of three Hollins-developed (and still developing) plays over the next two weekends. It continues today (7:30 p.m.) and tomorrow (2 p.m.) at the Hollins Theatre. Next weekend will feature "The Dragon Butcher" and "Grave Mistakes." Tickets are $10 for each session. You can find more information on the plays and the festival at https://www.hollins.edu/events/